A Life That Matters
Ready
or not, someday it will all come to an end. There
will be no more sunrises or sunsets, no minutes, hours, or days. All the
things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone
else. Your wealth, fame, and
temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It
will not matter what you owned or what you were owed. Your grudges,
resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear. So, too,
your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire. The
wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won’t matter where you came from, or on what side of the
tracks you lived, at the end. It
won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant. So
what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured? What
will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; Not what you got,
but what you gave. What will
matter is not your success, but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught. What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example. What
will matter is not your competence, but your character. What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how
many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone. What
will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those who
loved you. What will matter
is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what. Living
a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident. It’s
not a matter of circumstance but of choice. Choose to live a life that matters. We make a living by what we earn but we make a life by what we give!!! |
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